MoCA 1.1 has a max PHY rate of 270, though the actual data rate is lower. But a strong phy rate means a strong data rate.

General rule of thumb in case of any future troubleshooting... A moca 1.1 PHY rate over 200 is solid. Under 200 can mean there's a weak or damaged connection somewhere, but it still may work if it's not too bad. (I stress I'm not referring to data transfer rates. Those will be lower.)

Is there any reason I can't/shouldn't install a MoCA adapter inline between the cable entry point and a whole house splitter (which has a separate leg for the modem), rather than put the adapter between the coax jack on the wall and the Mini?

This would assume I'm using a MoCA enabled Elite that also has an Ethernet connection to a switch or router.

Is there any reason I can't/shouldn't install a MoCA adapter inline between the cable entry point and a whole house splitter (which has a separate leg for the modem), rather than put the adapter between the coax jack on the wall and the Mini?

This would assume I'm using a MoCA enabled Elite that also has an Ethernet connection to a switch or router.

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Not sure I follow that setup, but if the Elite is using an ethernet connection, you wouldn't need a moca adapter. If the Elite's coax can reach the Mini's coax, the Elite's ethernet connection is the only connection necessary. (Option #1 in the OP.)

You are 100% correct. MOCA is working everywhere but upstairs bedrooms have poor signal strength. Odd that WGN Superstation and a few others like CNN HD, HBO, and Showtime come in perfectly, but others are Searching For Signal. Even locals won't come in. Do we know of an amplifier that won't upset MOCA? I don't want to call Comcast since they'll start interpreting my multi room setup and add extra outlets to my multiple Tivos.

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As long as your MoCA network is all on the output side of the amplifier I don't think it would matter what type of amplifier you use. Now, if you're using an amp on one part of your network but not another, such that you need the MoCA signal to pass through the amp, I think there are certain bi-directional amps that would work for that, but I don't have any personal experience with any of them.

I have an 8+ year old amp and my MoCA network is all on the output side of it and works fine. The MoCA signals will pass from port to port through the splitter part of the amp, but probably not back upstream through the input side of the amp.

My minis will be delivered later today but I wanted to go ahead and enable MoCA on my XL4. In the network status menu, it's showing that MoCA is down. Is this normal with just the XL4 active in my home?

Here's my setup -

Cable modem in office, connected to an Airport Extreme router.
In the living room, I have another Airport Extreme serving as a wireless bridge. The XL4 is connected to this router. It can connect to the internet.
Coax is connected to the XL4 for the Comcast signal.

The plan is to use a mini in the bedroom, using MoCA.

I realize that the wireless part might be an issue for the mini. It's an N network, but I may have to go pure MoCA to get good performance.

But shouldn't my XL4 show MoCA as active?

Edit: Or is the top part of the network status page, the "Ethernet/MoCA (Bridged)" part, the only thing I should be worried about? It's the "MoCA Details" part that is showing down.

Sorry, maybe I should wait until the mini gets here before I worry about this.

My minis will be delivered later today but I wanted to go ahead and enable MoCA on my XL4. In the network status menu, it's showing that MoCA is down. Is this normal with just the XL4 active in my home?

Here's my setup -

Cable modem in office, connected to an Airport Extreme router.
In the living room, I have another Airport Extreme serving as a wireless bridge. The XL4 is connected to this router. It can connect to the internet.
Coax is connected to the XL4 for the Comcast signal.

The plan is to use a mini in the bedroom, using MoCA.

I realize that the wireless part might be an issue for the mini. It's an N network, but I may have to go pure MoCA to get good performance.

But shouldn't my XL4 show MoCA as active?

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It's probably not going to show as active if there is no other device on your network connected via MoCA. Check back after you connect your Mini.

So tried to set up my Mini last night and ran into some trouble with setting it up via MoCA. The Mini didn't recogonize the MoCA network at all. I tried a couple basic troubleshooting steps (checking the connections, resetting the MoCA adapter, power cycling the router and cable modem) but still wasn't able to figure it out.

Cable comes from wall and feeds into the MoCA Adapter. The MoCA Adapter then feeds into a 3 way splitter. One coax goes into a cable modem, one goes into a Cisco TA, and the last one goes into the XL4. Before I introduced the Mini everything was working great. The XL4 was receving internet thru coax and supplied the connection to the Stream thru the ethernet port. Based on the OP I may have set this up incorrectly or I should be using the XL4 to bridge the connection for the Mini instead of the Stream.

The other thing that I noticed after checking out Tivo's support pages and this forum is that my PHY is really low (in the 70s and 80s) where it needs to be high 100s. If I change the set up to use the XL4 as a bridge to the mini (as described in the OP) will this effect my PHY.

I ended up using the Tivo Wireless N adapter to set up the Mini. By the time it was thru guided setup I just changed a couple channels to verify that it would work but didn't play around with it much last night. From what I did see the picture seemed to be very good quality. I can use the Wireless adapter as an interim solution until I get the MoCA figured out.

So tried to set up my Mini last night and ran into some trouble with setting it up via MoCA. The Mini didn't recogonize the MoCA network at all. I tried a couple basic troubleshooting steps (checking the connections, resetting the MoCA adapter, power cycling the router and cable modem) but still wasn't able to figure it out. .

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Do you even need the MoCa adapter? Is the XL4 in the same room as your router? If so then you just need to connect the XL4 to the router using Ethernet, then go into the TiVo Network setup and enable the MoCa+Ethernet option, and then connect the Mini to the coax.

Now if your XL4 is not in the same room as your router then you have it hooked up wrong. What you want to do is connect the MoCa adapter to a coax somewhere near your router. Then connect the Ethernet port on the MoCa adapter to one of the LAN ports on your router. Now go to the TiVo and switch to MoCa+Ethernet configuration and for the Mini simply connect to coax and select MoCa.

I hooked it up this way because I was trying to use the XL4 as a bridge to the Stream. I think I am going to do what the OP suggested and run the ethernet to the XL4 and then switch the Tivo to MoCA+Ethernet and see if the Mini works then. I will run the stream to the router on a separate CAT6 cable. I will just have to drop my Xbox off the router and run it off of wireless. Will report back.

I have a setup question here:
I have a mini/ moca adapter on route from TiVo to be delivered this week. My xl4 is in my main tv room which also has my popbox movie player. Both these devices require wired speeds, so I plan on using moca for xl4 and Ethernet bridge out of xl4 for my popbox. My office room where my router is, is where I'll be placing mini. Since mini is right next to both coax/ Ethernet ports does it matter which I use for mini?

I hooked it up this way because I was trying to use the XL4 as a bridge to the Stream. I think I am going to do what the OP suggested and run the ethernet to the XL4 and then switch the Tivo to MoCA+Ethernet and see if the Mini works then. I will run the stream to the router on a separate CAT6 cable. I will just have to drop my Xbox off the router and run it off of wireless. Will report back.

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You can buy a network switch for like $10 and get more ports. A network switch is basically like a Ethernet splitter. You connect one port on the switch to one port on your router and all the other ports on the switch can then talk to the router.

I have a TON of networked devices in my house using a mix of Ethernet, MoCa and powerline networking and they can all talk to each other. It's actually pretty simple once you wrap your head around how to wire it all together,

You can buy a network switch for like $10 and get more ports. A network switch is basically like a Ethernet splitter. You connect one port on the switch to one port on your router and all the other ports on the switch can then talk to the router.

I have a TON of networked devices in my house using a mix of Ethernet, MoCa and powerline networking and they can all talk to each other. It's actually pretty simple once you wrap your head around how to wire it all together,

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Yeh I agree. Pick up a switch if you need more ports.. but i would get rid of that moca adaptor and use the XL4 as a bridge. I started doing that this week. Kicks ass